The Ringer: The Porsche GT3 parts ways with a classic engine, embraces an automatic transmission, and is still the most desirable current-generation 911.

Just two years in, the new Porsche 911 lineup doesn’t lack for variants, and yet the GT3 still seems more exceptional than all the others, a naturally aspirated hothead stripped of the frivolous and prepped for track duty. It’s also the 911 most willing to slay a few sacred cows. It only comes as an automatic, for one thing, and you’d better get used to hearing that: Porsche hints that all 911s will eventually be PDK only. Also, the GT3’s engine isn’t quite as fabulously special as it once was.

The GT3 has shared core engine components with the 911 GT3 RSR racer since its creation in 1999, ­making it the rare machine that can honestly be described as a race car for the road. But the 2014 GT3 doesn’t use the RSR’s “Mezger” flat-six, named after Hans Mezger, the career Porsche engineer famous for designing possibly the ultimate air-cooled automobile engine, the mighty 917’s flat-12. During development in the 1990s, the 996’s new water-cooled engine was deemed unfit for racing, so the motorsports department continued to improve the original 911’s flat-six, favoring its dry sump and stout bottom end. Porsche would finance this work, in part, by selling that engine in 911 Turbos, GT2s, and GT3s. The Mezger mill, already water cooled for racing applications, became a symbol of superiority for its owners, boasting brand heritage and a motorsports pedigree that added to the GT3’s mythology. The Mezger is a staple of Porsche lore, but its link to the GT3 has been broken by the steady march of technology—or, more specifically, direct injection and the PDK transmission. Though the GT3 Cup and RSR race cars soldier on with the storied engine, the new roadgoing GT3 is powered by a derivative of the Carrera S six.

The 911 GT3 is all business, with a 9000-rpm redline, optional carbon-ceramic brakes, and, sadly, no time-wasting manual gearbox.

While the GT3’s new engine can’t claim a 50-year history or race-proven durability, it does move the needle in the right direction on every quantifiable measure. Chiefly, redline comes 600 rpm later than in the old GT3, now at 9000 rpm, and power is up 40 horsepower to a peak of 475 at 8250 rpm. Reassuring Mezger attributes such as titanium connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons, and a proper dry-sump oiling system have also found their way into the new GT3. The real magic, though, is in the breathed-upon cylinder heads, which now use finger followers between the cams and valves. Compared with the standard 911’s bucket lifters, this arrangement increases the contact area between the cam lobe and the follower, but more significant is the follower’s lighter mass, which makes 9000 rpm possible.

Ignore that the Carrera S makes one more pound-foot of torque. In the GT3, it’s all about revs. At 4000 rpm, the six-cylinder shifts its pitch as two resonance pipes open in the intake manifold. The flat-lined torque curve comes alive, the power band takes an even steeper tack, and the raspy, at times tinny, exhaust note swells orchestrally. We would spin this flat-six right past redline if it weren’t for the fuel cutoff.

We’ll need more time to warm up to the two-pedal transmission. The GT3’s sole gearbox, the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, is a merciless machine, with snap-action shifts and the most exacting launch program in a modern car. A 6700-rpm start leads to a 3.0-second run to 60 mph and a lightning-quick 11.2-second quarter-mile time at 126 mph. With improvements of 0.6 second in both tests over the old stick-shift GT3, there’s no debate that PDK is a perform­ance-enhancing supplement with big benefits on the track.

Verdict:

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